Health insurance - excess

[brewsterbudgen]

I'm looking at new health insurance policies for me and my family in Thailand.    The best value one I can find, with good coverage, carries an excess charge of $2,000 per claim.  It is an International company. 

So basically, I would only use it for a major treatments, costing more than $2,000.  Alternatively I could pay a premium which is 3x higher, with a much lower excess charge.

 

Any advice?

[Sheryl]

IMO if you can afford to set aside $2,000 for use solely for this purpose, it makes good sense to go for the lower premium with the excess.

 

I am assuming that excess is per year and not per event.

[brewsterbudgen]

1 hour ago, Sheryl said:

IMO if you can afford to set aside $2,000 for use solely for this purpose, it makes good sense to go for the lower premium with the excess.

 

I am assuming that excess is per year and not per event.

 

It looks like it's per event:

 

"The excess applies to some benefits on a 'per claim' basis. This means that your policy will respond after you have met the first part of every new event up to your chosen excess amount. An example of a separate event could be say breaking your arm in June and then having a heart attack in November. This counts as two events and you will have to pay up to your excess level each time before we take over paying the remainder of your treatment.

If you have renewed your policy and treatment continues into the new benefit year, unlike many of our competitors, you will not be penalised with having to pay another excess."

[Sheryl]

Since it is per event, you could potentially be out of pocket several times that amount in the same year (if you are very unlucky).

 

If you are in very good health, the odds still favor you coming out ahead financially by taking the excess but should do so only if you are in a position to afford at least $6,000 a year in out of pocket health costs (should you have 3 separate claims in a year..more than that is possible but very unlikely).

 

Have you looked into Cigna Global? Their excess is per year, which makes a big difference and their rates are usually competitive. They also offer combos of excess and copay with a cap on the copay. Fr example you can accept a 20% copay and a $500excess but not to exceed a total out of pocket expense of $5,000 in any given year. I(or lower copay, $1000 excess, etc etc). f you do some spreadsheet projections with various scenarios (hospitalization costing 200,000 baht, 300,000 etc) you'll find that in most cases  you'd end up  spend less that way than with just a higher excess.

 

[brewsterbudgen]

Thanks Sheryl. I will have a look at Cigna.